"That I can quite understand," replied the man with an insulting smile; "but I will make bold not to pay it. I prefer sticking to my principle of paying as I go along, sentence by sentence." "Ask then!" murmured the hag greedily. "When does the Beg return? I lay five ducats on that question." "The answer to it costs ten. That is my lowest price." "There's your money then! Now speak!" The woman counted the gold pieces, put them in her bosom, and replied-- "The Beg comes home this evening." "Where is the subterranean way by which he arrives?" "The answer to that costs one hundred ducats." "There you are! Don't count them, but answer me!" The woman took the money, pointed to the yawning chasm behind them, and said-- "We are on the very spot." The man looked around him with some surprise, then, jingling the purse from which he had been doling out the ducats in the old woman's ear, he said-- "All in this purse is yours if our plan succeeds, but if you betray us, this dagger will surely reach you. I'd hunt you down even if you took refuge in hell itself!" The hag grinned. "No threats, please! I know something which will not only make you hand over that purse of gold to me instantly, but will also fill you with such insane joy that you'll be ready to cover me with kisses. I have about me a letter which, if once your master reads, he would cover me with gold from head to foot." "Who wrote it?" "That is a very dear question. If you paid for the answer down, I'm afraid you would not have enough money left to carry you home." "I want to know who wrote that letter. I'm not going to buy a pig in a poke." "Then farewell! If you want to know anything more, you must pay for it." And she prepared to go. "Stop! Give me that letter, or I'll kill you." "No, you won't! One shriek from me and you are lost." "Where's the letter?" "You surely don't think me fool enough to tell you! I don't carry it on my person, so you need not look for it!" The man angrily threw the purse towards her, whereupon she tripped to the entrance of the cavern, fetched from thence her crutch and unscrewed its handle, and drew forth from the hollow of the stick a crumpled silken roll, which the man unravelled and began to read, and as he read his face began to tremble for joy, disbelief, and surprise. "If all this really happens, what you have now received is a mere earnest of what you will receive hereafter." "Didn't I tell you so?" returned the beldame complacently. "Didn't I say that you'd gladly pay me in advance at least one-half of the sum stipulated?" "Now, take heed that nothing is observed!" "Pst! Go round by the stream, the usual path is to-day infested by marauding parties." With these words the two shapes glided hastily out of the cavern, and vanished in different directions among the thickets of the wood. * * * * *